


Somewhere in Another World

by whenshewrites



Series: A Collection of One-Shots and Tumblr Prompts [97]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst, Berica Deserved Better, Canon Compliant, Character Study, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Post-Alpha Pack, Pre-Boyd Death, Pre-Erica Death, Soft Feels, berica
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:27:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27846026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whenshewrites/pseuds/whenshewrites
Summary: “This was her home,” Stiles said, glancing around the loft. His eyes lingered on the body in the corner one more time before he looked away. “You were her home. You know that, right?”“Stiles—”“That’s what pack means,” Stiles said, cutting the man off. Derek gave him a red-eyed look but for the first time since his arrival, Stiles didn’t look fazed. “Pack means home.”
Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Vernon Boyd/Erica Reyes
Series: A Collection of One-Shots and Tumblr Prompts [97]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1956889
Comments: 20
Kudos: 114





	Somewhere in Another World

There was this dull grey feeling to being dead. 

That’s what Erica thought, anyway.

The thing was, she didn’t know she was dead. Not right away, at least. She was still there in the cell, with Boyd in the furthest corner. Except there was something wrong; there was something so wrong. She’d been wrapped in his arms at one moment and he’d promised he wouldn’t let her go. He’d promised he’d _never let her go._

Except now something was wrong. Something was so wrong.

There was this dull grey feeling to being dead. It took Erica a few days to realize that’s what it was. That’s what had happened.

The Alphas hadn’t needed her anymore.

-

It was strange, standing over her own body. If Erica looked down at her hands, she could’ve sworn they were still solid. She was still here, she was still herself. Everything was fine and she couldn’t even remember what the pain of dying had felt like.

It was all some distant memory. Some faraway dream.

Then Derek had found her.

Derek Hale, all red eyes and dark glares. The man who’d promised that she could leave everything behind with one bite; the epilepsy, the feeling of being powerless, the stares and whispers in the hallway. Derek Hale, all sharp growls and angry words. The man who had promised one bite could let her finally live.

Erica had never seen him look this broken before.

The man looked at her for a long moment, eyes flickering between normal and red. Except, he wasn’t really looking at her. No, his gaze went straight through where she stood. Like she wasn’t there, like she was invisible.

With a sinking stomach, Erica turned around and looked silently at her own body in the corner of the supply closet. And nothing about it was right.

Derek finally made a small, choked noise at the back of his throat. Erica turned around— right as the man walked straight through her.

“No,” Erica said, staring at him. “No, wait. I’m still here.”

But the man didn’t even look at her. Instead, he crouched down beside her body and bowed his head, something akin to a whimper breaking from his hunched form. Erica swallowed hard, looking back down at her hands before stepping closer to her Alpha.

“Derek, I’m still here,” she said, words shaking. “I swear, I’m right here.”

Still, the man didn’t turn around and Erica felt sick. Because she was still here, wasn’t she?

Wasn’t she?

“I’m right behind you,” she whispered. “I’m not gone yet.”

And next to her body, Derek finally sobbed.

-

“Will you bury me?”

Erica stood next to Derek in the empty loft, where the man sat staring at nothing. It was strange, she thought. The scents she used to recognize so easily were gone, as if everything had all been wiped clean away. And the blank look on the man’s face was distressing, but— but— she didn’t feel things so strongly anymore. 

Derek was just… there. Her Alpha was just there. A few feet away, looking at her body covered in a sheet across the room. Erica reached out, fingers wavering in the air inches from his shoulder, and then pulled back, swallowing hard.

“Will you tell my dad?”

She didn’t know what was worse; the silence or the unanswered questions. Erica thought she could scream, cry, and shout, but it wouldn’t do anything. Everything was silent and Derek hadn’t looked at her once.

Then the loft door slid open.

Erica spun around to see a fidgeting silhouetted figure in the doorway. For a moment she just stood there and stared, searching for a sent. And it never hit, but the moment the figure stepped into the light, she grinned, rushing forward.

“Batman!”

“Hey,” Stiles said quietly and Erica’s heart leaped. For a second, for one brief, wonderful second, she was there. She was there, she was alive, and Stiles was coming right toward her. _Hey—_ she was there.

But then the teen walked right through her, approaching Derek carefully. Stiles’s eyes darted to her body in the corner and his face paled as he looked firmly forward again.

Derek hadn’t moved from his own spot, expression one of wary blankness as he eyed the boy. Like he didn’t know what to do with the teen’s sudden appearance. 

“What are you doing here, Stiles?”

Stiles started to glance back at the corner, but then he dropped his gaze once more. Erica realized she couldn’t hear his heartbeat— not like she used to be able to. It had always been so distinctly Stiles. So fast, so anxious, so _Stiles._

She couldn’t hear it now. She couldn’t catch his scent or know every time his heart skipped a beat. Every time it stuttered.

It was always around Derek. Stiles’s heart always skipped a beat around Derek.

“She, uh, ran away,” Stiles said quietly, fingers twitching at his sides. Erica blinked and Derek stiffened.

“What?”

“She ran away,” Stiles said again, softer this time. “Uh, her and Boyd. That’s what the cops at my dad’s department think, anyway. And it’s been long enough that they’ve called off the search.”

That struck Erica like a cold blow. She stood there for a moment, the words slowly sinking in. Then she stepped forward, trying to grab Stiles’s arm, but her hand passed straight through.

Derek didn’t say a word, eyes dimming. Erica’s throat tightened. 

“No, they didn’t,” she said. Panic crashed over her like she’d never felt before and she tried to grab Stiles's arm again. “No, they didn’t, Batman. They couldn’t have, they shouldn’t have. Isn’t my dad still looking for me? Isn’t someone still looking for me?”

No one answered and the silence was overbearing.

Derek’s expression was entirely closed off now and the man was impossibly tense where he sat, regarding Stiles with nothing but a cold stare. And Erica had never seen him so _broken_ before. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because she’s gone, Derek,” Stiles whispered. “And we should bury her.”

A pang of terror struck through her. Erica stared at the teen, then looked back at her body. And despite everything, despite _everything,_ it was like it had all finally crashed over her. She was dead, the Alphas had killed her. She was dead and— and—

“I’m still here,” Erica said. “I’m right here.”

Derek stayed perfectly silent, staring hard at the floor. Erica hadn’t ever really understood exactly what the feeling of pack meant; she hadn’t had the time. But still, everything about this felt wrong. She’d _wanted_ to know. The times when Derek Hale wasn’t all red eyes and angry glares. All those full moons after that first one where she’d been aching to run through the woods with the others. With the pack, with… with...

_Boyd._

He’d promised he would never let her go.

“Hey, Sourwolf,” Stiles said softly, interrupting her thoughts. The teen stepped forward awkwardly, fingers still twitching at his sides. “I’m, uh. I’m really sorry, big guy.”

Derek finally glanced back up with a clenched jaw. Stiles hesitated for only a second before sitting down awkwardly at the Alpha’s side, leaving just enough space between them.

“This was her home,” Stiles said, glancing around the loft. His eyes lingered on the body in the corner one more time and then he looked away. “You were her home. You know that, right?”

“Stiles—”

“That’s what pack means,” Stiles said, cutting the man off. Derek gave him a red-eyed look but for the first time since his arrival, Stiles didn’t look fazed. “Pack means home.”

Erica swallowed hard, glancing toward the door. Memories of that one night came flooding back and some part of her thought it just hadn’t been the right time, then. It just hadn’t been the right place. Not then, not yet. 

Not then, not now. And not anymore, no matter how much she might want it.

Maybe in another world.

“Pack means home,” Stiles said again. Derek was impossibly tense as the teen sighed, shoulder just barely brushing against the man’s own. “The others still need a home.”

_But I’m still here._

Erica wrapped her arms around herself, wondering how it could be so impossibly cold when she couldn’t feel anything. How unfair everything was, how her last memory was that fucking cell and the fucking darkness. It had been cold there too— except for the one person who had been pack from the very beginning. Who had promised to never let her go.

_Boyd._

“We should bury her, Derek,” Stiles said again, searching the Alpha’s face. And Erica couldn’t do anything when Derek finally nodded, the light in his eyes dimming even more.

“I know.”

-

Somehow, ‘not wanting to sit alone at the lunch table’ went to avoiding the cafeteria altogether so the memories didn’t come back over and over again. Somehow, asking for the bite to gain control and be something he’d never been before led to a set of claws in Boyd’s chest and the feeling of numbness settling over him. 

A feeling of ease that he hadn’t felt for so long, it almost seemed like a dream.

Boyd was never one to think that things were ‘unfair’ but something about this just didn’t seem right. It was one thing after another, it was loss after loss after loss. After the bite, there had been one side of the werewolf life that was all sharp blue eyes and long blonde hair and another part that was just… just fear and running and so much _pain._

Somehow, asking for more went to begging for less and when Boyd realized he was dying, it didn’t all really seem so bad.

Except he’d never seen Derek look so broken before.

His grandma believed in things like spirits, angels, and the afterlife. Boyd thought maybe she needed that after his parents died and his sister went missing. He’d never been the ‘go to church every Sunday’ type, but he went when she asked. And he thought in the mix of werewolves, kanimas, and other Supernatural threats, maybe some things could be true.

He hoped some things could be true.

But then when he’d taken Erica’s hand and turned away from Derek and this life, he’d hoped that everything could just be put on pause. Everything could just stop for a second.

Everything except for sharp blue eyes and long blonde hair.

Boyd didn’t ask for things since his sister’s disappearance. Not often, anyway. Because he’d asked for her to come back too often, after all. He didn’t ask for things because he didn’t think he’d like what happened if someone said yes.

He’d asked for the bite— and he’d never had the chance to decided if he really liked it or not. 

He’d asked for Erica— and she said yes, wrapped in his arms in the cell of the Alphas. She’s said yes and then she was gone, with less than a word, less than a whisper.

That all came rushing back with the claws in his chest, with Derek’s broken whisper of _‘I’m so sorry’,_ and with the strangest scent of _mine_ somewhere in the room. 

All the memories, the asking, the loss.

For a moment, Boyd was thrown out of his head. Then he was standing over his own body. There was Derek, trembling. There was Stiles, one hand on the man’s shoulder. And there was— there was—

“I didn’t expect to see you so early,” a voice said behind him, tone almost playful. Despite everything, despite _this._

Boyd froze. For a moment, he was almost terrified to turn around. Then,

“Boyd.”

His throat tightened and he turned slowly, meeting electric blue eyes and a much softer smile. After she’d turned, Erica had traded soft smiles for sharper ones, backed with pointy teeth and a newfound confidence. Boyd thought both sides were beautiful but something about this still made his heart stop and the world slow around him.

For a moment, he just stared. There was nothing but Erica in the room. No Alpha red eyes, no roars or howls. No pain or fear. There was just Erica.

“Maybe I just missed you.”

She laughed and it was the best thing he’d heard in months.

“I’m sorry,” Boyd said, still staring. Some part of this felt like a dream. “I let you go.”

The last time he’d seen Erica’s smile turn sad was there; back there. In the cold, the dark. This time though, it was a different sad. It was a forgiving sad.

“Maybe I missed you too,” she said, instead of anything else. Boyd smiled.

“It’s not too late?”

“Not this time.”

He looked at her curiously. Then that soft smile was back, one hand reaching out. And Boyd thought he could still hear voices at his back. There was still a tug, going one way and another. Erica’s smile— the claws in his chest. Derek’s broken _‘I’m so sorry.”_

“Come on, big guy,” Erica said. “I’m still here.”

Somewhere between a bite and a cage, a loss and a battle, Boyd finally felt at ease. Like a body wrapped in his arms and promises in the dark; whispers of light and a new life. Something else, something different.

It just hadn’t been the time, hadn’t been the place. Not then, not there.

 _"Maybe in another world,"_ Erica had said at one point, face turned into his chest. And Boyd had thought he’d agreed with her; maybe somewhere else. Maybe somewhere safe.

Erica was smiling and Boyd thought it was the best thing he’d seen in months. He didn’t even have to think twice as he took her hand and— and— somewhere in between blue eyes, somewhere in between _“I’ll never let you go”_ he was finally at ease again.

Somewhere in another world.

**Author's Note:**

> Oh goshes, I’ve never written a focusing on Berica fic before, but I had so much fun with this one! It was written for the prompt; "Maybe in another world" and I love those betas so much! They deserved better.


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